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For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Photo#137379
slender brown mantis - Bistanta mexicana - male

slender brown mantis - Bistanta mexicana - Male
Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Hidalgo County, Texas, USA
July 7, 2007
Size: body 35-40 mm
On wall of entranceway to washroom at visitor center at dawn. The overhead light had attracted a lot of insects during the night.

Presumably Oligonicella species, based on the posterior portion of the pronotum being about twice as long as the anterior portion (rather than 3-4 times longer in Thesprotia according to a key to Florida Mantidae).

I found verification that B. mexicanus is the one in Texas
Moved from Bactromantis.

Moved
note: Many authors have treated Bactromantis under Oligonicella, so the move is more of a correction to match Orthoptera Species File taxonomy. I can't find any references to the genus in Texas, but I expect that they are likely B. mexicanus there as in Arizona (???).

Moved from Oligonicella.